If you’re soliciting answers to “what is substack’s core function to you?” my answer is that it’s both a mirror and a window. It reflects back the things I’m most interested in that I raised my hand as caring about (with some opportunities on discovery I know you all are working on) and then as sort of a knock on effect to that because those people are often discussing events in the world or other articles I get to carry a window of the perspectives of people I trust as a meta level across my media diet. That’s true of all social media of course but with different selection effects. Money as a signal just sort of cleans up what I see. Twitter is too attention grabby for me to spend a lot of time there because I feel like I’m getting epilepsy. Facebook feels like I’m now having a civil war with people I know in real life. But on substack I self sorted into people who already, along at least some major axis, see the world the way that I do. Where it’s best, that’s why I think it’s best. Where it has opportunities it feels like it is deviating from that selection. Also I like what he said about video on top of video, a sort of meta level layer of the internet. You could do that for text and even perspective with an LLM. Have Bari Weiss drop notes all over the NYT or an LLM that is using her writing as part of its prompt. Now you’re not just reading the NYT, you’re reading the NYT *with* Bari. And then you can add another layer on top of that for people who have disagreements and settle those so you see a considered consensus view. Add money for incentives. Look in your heart, Chris. You know you want to build this.
Is this a podcast? Not sure the video adds anything here other than requesting I look at a screen. And as I feel (like many) I've already reached peak screen I'd rather listen to an hour long chat while walking the dog. :-)
Yes, it is also a podcast. You can listen in audio-only mode in the Substack app, add it to your other podcast app from here, or search for it on Spotify.
Like pretty much the entire culture including almost all of Substack, he’s not really taking in to account that since around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis it’s become possible to crash the modern world in a single day, based on a decision by a single human being. The One Bad Day situation.
There is currently no credible plan for undoing the One Bad Day situation. More to the point, there is very little interest in even discussing what such a plan might be, both here on Substack, and across the culture at large.
Pincus has fallen victim to the wishful thinking assumption at the heart of our civilization, that more knowledge will inevitably lead to better outcomes. This assumption is a 19th century philosophy that became outdated in 1945.
We will now all nod and roll our eyes and say we already know all this. But we don’t. We very truly DO NOT GET IT. If we did, we’d be talking about little else.
Whatever any of us are building, it can all vanish in a moment, based on a decision by a single human being.
HOMEWORK: Watch the film Don’t Look Up every day for the next year. You are living in that film.
If you’re soliciting answers to “what is substack’s core function to you?” my answer is that it’s both a mirror and a window. It reflects back the things I’m most interested in that I raised my hand as caring about (with some opportunities on discovery I know you all are working on) and then as sort of a knock on effect to that because those people are often discussing events in the world or other articles I get to carry a window of the perspectives of people I trust as a meta level across my media diet. That’s true of all social media of course but with different selection effects. Money as a signal just sort of cleans up what I see. Twitter is too attention grabby for me to spend a lot of time there because I feel like I’m getting epilepsy. Facebook feels like I’m now having a civil war with people I know in real life. But on substack I self sorted into people who already, along at least some major axis, see the world the way that I do. Where it’s best, that’s why I think it’s best. Where it has opportunities it feels like it is deviating from that selection. Also I like what he said about video on top of video, a sort of meta level layer of the internet. You could do that for text and even perspective with an LLM. Have Bari Weiss drop notes all over the NYT or an LLM that is using her writing as part of its prompt. Now you’re not just reading the NYT, you’re reading the NYT *with* Bari. And then you can add another layer on top of that for people who have disagreements and settle those so you see a considered consensus view. Add money for incentives. Look in your heart, Chris. You know you want to build this.
Ok
thanks for sharing, Chris 🙏🏼
Is this a podcast? Not sure the video adds anything here other than requesting I look at a screen. And as I feel (like many) I've already reached peak screen I'd rather listen to an hour long chat while walking the dog. :-)
Yes, it is also a podcast. You can listen in audio-only mode in the Substack app, add it to your other podcast app from here, or search for it on Spotify.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5zIq2q4w63FkDkJGmfhqmC?si=kyK_z-mDTxS_bM36MVQzYA
Thanks Chris, appreciate it. At first I hadn’t noticed the new tab in the mobile app interface.
Pincus’ optimism is appealing, but misguided.
Like pretty much the entire culture including almost all of Substack, he’s not really taking in to account that since around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis it’s become possible to crash the modern world in a single day, based on a decision by a single human being. The One Bad Day situation.
There is currently no credible plan for undoing the One Bad Day situation. More to the point, there is very little interest in even discussing what such a plan might be, both here on Substack, and across the culture at large.
Pincus has fallen victim to the wishful thinking assumption at the heart of our civilization, that more knowledge will inevitably lead to better outcomes. This assumption is a 19th century philosophy that became outdated in 1945.
We will now all nod and roll our eyes and say we already know all this. But we don’t. We very truly DO NOT GET IT. If we did, we’d be talking about little else.
Whatever any of us are building, it can all vanish in a moment, based on a decision by a single human being.
HOMEWORK: Watch the film Don’t Look Up every day for the next year. You are living in that film.